[Giovanna Clairval]

[Does anybody else find this conflict in themselves – the rational intellectual telling you they should be picked apart and the books thrown to a dusty corner but you set aside the rational part of your brain and become 12 again and just love the story and ignore the other stuff???

I know what you mean. I really do.

Last month we were packing a lot of stuff, because we were about to move into a new flat (an unfinished, nightmarish business) when my daughter laid her hands on a stack of Eddings’ books.
She’s always looking for good reads, so she asked me: ‘You have so many of these… You must love them. What are the stories about?’
I went: ‘Er… hem… I don’t remember… But it’s nice (!)’.

So I reflected on that and, before reading this thread, I came up with the following.

I really enjoyed the Belgariad (the others… everything has been said here) for three reasons:

1) the beginning, especially the very first sentence of book I. Check it out, if you don’t remember it: it’s perfect. Sorry, my copy is still unpacked, or I would have posted it here.

2) The sharp, cheeky dialogues between Pol and Bel. It was original at the time, and I learned a lot from them.

3) The language (neat, elegant).

It’s more than can be said of many authors. Now, of course, there is the new generation of F and SF writers; our palates are jaded.


Those are the very good reasons why I used to read Eddings. Today, to convince me to buy another of his novels, one of you guys should come up with a very good review. Then, the unabashed me who so much loved reading E. will shut up the intellectual me…